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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28753356">Forelsket</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomeoandAntoinette/pseuds/RomeoandAntoinette'>RomeoandAntoinette</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Metal Gear</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Feelings Realization, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Post-Tanker Incident (Metal Gear)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:02:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28753356</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomeoandAntoinette/pseuds/RomeoandAntoinette</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Snake wakes up after nearly drowning in the Hudson River, and has some revelations about the man who saved his life. (MGS2) (Post-Tanker)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Otacon/Solid Snake</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>66</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Forelsket</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong> <em>Forelsket</em> </strong>
</p><p>
  <em>Origin: Norway</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“The euphoria experienced as you begin to fall in love – romantic oblivion.”</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>When Snake first realized he was in love, it wasn’t like anything he’d seen depicted in novels or in movies. There was no slow twining of the fingers, there was no dancing in the snowfall, there was no confession on a beach, there was no breathless kiss accompanied by a crescendo of stringed instruments. There was also no fade-to-black, but for that, Snake could at least be grateful.</p><p>No, none of that. In Solid Snake’s typical line of <em>amazing </em>luck, he had the pleasure of realizing it shortly after waking up from a two-day coma.</p><p>His body was laying ragdoll-style on a tweed sofa in an unfamiliar apartment. His head was throbbing, and every sinew of muscles felt like it was welded in-place by steel. Gathering the strength to lift one finger left him winded, let alone an arm and a leg.</p><p>By the time he was fully upright after what felt like a thousand years later, the rest of the scenery began to slowly coalesce around him. The blurriness of his vision receded just far enough for him to make out brown carpet, faded floral wallpaper, and the sound of cabs outside a coin-slot sized window. The sunlight outside was bright, and there were no curtains to block it out.</p><p>The next thing he noticed was that, on the other side of the room, there was a cot with a blanket and crooked pillow.</p><p>He blinked slowly at the strange arrangement. It wasn’t until he saw a few strands of ashy-brown hair on the light blue pillowcase and a bottle of Visine, bent from use, laying off to the side that the pieces began to fall into place.</p><p>The apartment had a bedroom, but apparently, Otacon hadn’t been using it. Instead, he’d been camping out in the living room, right across from the couch.</p><p>Just in case his partner needed him.</p><p>At that moment, Snake heard the front door click open. Instinct forced the battle-hardened stealth operative body to rocket onto his feet and prepare for an attack. The urge his before his brain could stop him and, sure enough, the moment of haste was followed by a searing pain that wracked his body, making stars appear behind his eyes his chest suddenly feel as it was a shaken champagne bottle ready to pop from took much pressure.</p><p>He was so disoriented that he almost collapsed again. However, he felt two arms come to his rescue and keep him steady.</p><p>“Dave!” Otacon cried, his voice terribly loud and horribly silent all at once.</p><p>Groggily, the soldier lifted his head to stare upwards at his partner. The horrible overhead lighting framed his fluffy head in a halo of radiance. Oddly enough, that vision wasn’t what stole Snake’s breath away. It was the concern he could she shining in his eyes. The way his thick glasses seemed to put those barely withheld tears under a microscope.</p><p>“You shouldn’t be up,” Otacon said, one arm wrapping around the other man’s shoulders while another wrapped around his waist. “Come on, lay back down.”</p><p>Snake was not about to disagree with that.</p><p>With only a little difficulty, Otacon managed to help Snake limp back to the sofa, where he laid him out flat on his back again.</p><p>“H-Hal…?” Snake whispered, voice gravelly like he’d swallowed cement. “What…”</p><p>“You almost drowned,” Otacon said, snuffling about crazily until he was sure his partner was safely on top of the sofa. Only then did he pull away to push his crooked glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “In the Hudson. You were on a mission to take pictures of a new Metal Gear prototype onboard the U.S.S. Discovery.”</p><p>Snake tried to think back. Slowly, like a computer importing image files, memories began to download one by one and become clear in his brain.</p><p>“I remember,” he whispered.</p><p>A weak smile was lured onto Hal’s face. “That’s good. No concussion, it seems. You did have a pretty bad case of hypothermia going on there for a while though.”</p><p>“…How did you find me?” Snake asked weakly. That was one part he couldn’t remember.</p><p>Otacon was busy examining the myriad of medicines on the nearby coffee table when Snake asked him the question. After picking up a few bottles to examine them, he dumped a few white tablets into his hand and grabbed a nearby, unopened bottle of water.</p><p>“Well,” he started, clearing his throat, “As soon as I received your pictures of RAY, I made my way toward the pick-up point in the harbor. That’s when Ocelot showed up and hijacked RAY to blow the house down…”</p><p>He stopped his jittery motions for a moment and sat still, staring blankly at the wall. The pills trembled in his overturned hand.</p><p>“The next thing I heard was the sound of water rushing,” he said, voice dropping lower. “And…I stopped thinking.”</p><p>Otacon slowly moved to the arm of the sofa so he could help Snake sit up. He gently braced his palms against Snake’s back, clothed in a thick sweatshirt for warmth, and pushed. Once his upper body was elevated, Otacon slowly lowered his partner’s torso onto his lap. After shifting a few inches to make the pose comfortable for both of them. He lifted the painkillers to Snake’s mouth, gently feeding them to him one at a time.</p><p>Otacon continued, “I threw the computer in the car and raced to the dock. I arranged for a small boat to be docked nearby, just in case of an emergency. Mei Ling and Nastasha were too far away. I jumped in and went out for you. I had to go by GPS coordinates, but it’s kind of hard to miss a sinking tanker.”</p><p>Snake let out a puff of laughter at that, but the jolt of pain it sent through his chest made him regret it.</p><p>“I had to be careful to not get too close so I didn’t get sucked under, but I grabbed a flashlight and scanned the water for you,” Otacon said. “You made it pretty easy to find you, actually. I found you treading water. When I tried to talk to you, you were clearly zonked out. I hauled you into the boat and drove you back to the shore.”</p><p>“You…pulled me out yourself?” Snake asked. The lack of inflection in his exhausted voice betrayed his true disbelief.</p><p>The whole scene sounded like something out of a movie. Snake <em>wished</em> he could have remembered his best friend doing something so incredible. He imagined that Otacon was downplaying the true series of events for Snake’s sake and sanity. The actual situation had probably been much direr, and yet, Otacon had still braved the frozen water essentially bare-handed and saved Snake’s life.</p><p>Otacon reached for the bottle and unscrewed the cap. “I did.”</p><p>What Otacon didn't tell Snake was how Snake's hands had been too weak to grab onto his grip, Otacon had to bent into the icy water himself to fish him out.</p><p>He didn't tell Snake was that he’d hauled him into the boat and given him CPR, breathing new life to him while the icy winds burned him back and arms numb.</p><p>He didn’t tell Snake that the sinking tanker had, in fact, created massive waves that made easy work of their lifeboat.</p><p>He didn’t tell Snake that, when their vessel capsized, Otacon had wrapped his arms around Snake's shoulders and swam him to the shore himself, using his long limbs and a few years of high-school life-guarding experience to glide through the ocean as effortlessly as he could manage in his frazzled state.</p><p>If Otacon had told Snake what actually happened, he didn’t know how Snake would react. Besides, it was Otacon’s intel that had put them on that tanker in the first place. Being braggadocious about saving the life of the friend he’d endangered in the first place just didn’t feel right. In his mind, it was literally the least he could have done.</p><p>The past was in the past. Snake was alive, and that was all Otacon cared about.</p><p>The snapping of the water bottle’s thin plastic ring was like a gunshot in the otherwise quiet apartment.</p><p>“Here,” he said, lifting the bottle to Snake’s blueish lips. “Can you drink a little bit?”</p><p>While Snake let the water fill his dry mouth, Otacon massaged his throat to encourage him to take small gulps.</p><p>When he got overeager and tried to swallow a larger gulp after downing the pills, he erupted into a coughing fit. He sputtered gracelessly against the sleeve of Otacon’s time-worn hoodie.</p><p>“Easy there,” Otacon said as he tugged the bottle away and robbed Snake’s back until the coughing subsided. “You’re still weak.”</p><p>“Sorry,” he croaked out. “Thirsty.”</p><p>Hal nodded in understanding. “Well, you have been out a long time.”</p><p>Snake only grunted in response. He didn’t really want to know how long, but judging by the soreness in his body and the fact that his night owl of a partner had created a bed in their living room just to be near him until he woke up spoke volumes. If he had to guess, it must have been nearly three days.</p><p>No wonder he hurt like hell.</p><p>After Otacon helped Snake gently down the rest of the water bottle, he vacated their cozy position on the sofa to travel to the kitchen.</p><p>“Do you think you can keep down any food?” Otacon asked as he opened one of the walnut cabinets and peered inside. He searched for any sustenance that would be filling by bland enough for his healing stomach to keep down and digest. “Maybe some broth? Or steel-cut oats? Anything?”</p><p>“Sleep,” Snake groaned. He then extended arm – bruised hues of purple and gangrene – in the vague direction of his partner, who was all but a smudge in the illuminated kitchen. His eyes were still weak, and his usual eagle-eyed vision had yet to return.</p><p>Thankfully, Otacon was quick to return to his side. Snake almost heaved a sigh of relief when his partner’s visage became clear again, the contours of his face as clear as crystal against the surrounding blurriness of the living room hideout. His eyes were still shining starlight blue behind his glasses, still brimming with joy that his best friend had returned to him <em>alive.</em></p><p>“Sleep, Snake,” Otacon said. It was a gentle command that left no room for negotiation.</p><p>He then took Snake’s hand in his own and sat on the floor in front of the sofa. “Don’t worry. I’ll stand guard.”</p><p>The statement drew a sigh from Snake. “You won’t leave?” He almost felt pitiful for asking. </p><p>“Never,” Hal said with an adamant shake of the head. His dandelion puff of shaggy, brown hair swayed in agreement. “I’ll be right here with you until you wake up. I promise.”</p><p>“Otacon…” he gasped his chest still a little raw. He took a moment to search for the exact words he wanted to say, but couldn’t fish them from his brain quickly enough.</p><p>Instead, he settled on the next best thing.</p><p>“Thank you for saving me,” he rasped. “I wasn’t ready to go down yet.”</p><p>A belated epiphany chased his sentence.<em> I love you. </em>However, the man found himself too tired and frightened to speak the words into existence. </p><p>Otacon smiled and brushed his thumb over the tips of Snake’s knuckles. He paid extra attention to one where the skin was split, making sure to keep his touch tender. “And I wasn’t ready to let you go yet<em>.</em>”</p><p>This time, Snake laughed despite the pain.</p><p>The sentiment played over and over in his brain like a lullaby as he slowly faded off to sleep. The rest of the world faded around him until only the warmth of Otacon's hand, anchoring him to a kinder reality, remained.</p><p>This time, Snake held on for dear life.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much for reading! This was supposed to be a Valentine's Day fic, but since it's not really themed around the holiday, I decided to just publish this one now and write another fluffier one for the actual holiday, haha!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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